Meaning & Origins

Originally a name given to a child of either sex baptized in holy water that was, purportedly at least, brought from the River Jordan, whose Hebrew name, ha-yarden, means ‘flowing down’. It was in this river that Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, and medieval pilgrims to the Holy Land usually tried to bring back a flask of its water with them. The modern given name is either a revival of this, or else a transferred use of the surname that was derived from the medieval given name. It is more popular as a boy's name in Britain and as a girl's name in the United States.

English: 1. from the Middle English personal name Alstan, which is a coalescence of several different Old English personal names: Æðelstān ‘noble stone’, Ælfstān ‘elf stone’, Ealdstān ‘old stone’, or Ealhstān ‘altar stone’. 2. habitational name from any of various places called Alston (in Cumbria, Lancashire, Devon, and Somerset) or Alstone (in Gloucestershire and Staffordshire). With the exception of Alston in Cumbria, which is formed with the Old Scandinavian personal name Halfdan, these place names all consist of an Old English personal name + Old English tūn ‘settlement’, for example Ælfsige in the case of Alstone in Gloucestershire.